Yippee! I finally updated! I'd just like to apologize for the long wait. I know that you guys don't care about excuses, but I've been really busy.

Scarlet Pools of Love

Chapter 4: Caught!

All too soon, Monday morning came. Hiding Alden from her parents wasn't as hard as Chelsea first thought it would be. Her parents were usually working upstairs. So, Alden just had to lay low in her room.

"Okay, I'm going to school. So, you have to stay here for about eight hours," she explained to him.

"Wait, are your parents always home? Don't they have jobs or something?" Alden asked, confused. With the exception of the first night, it seemed that her parents never left the house.

"They're exterminators. They only leave the house when they get called out on a job," explained Chelsea.

"Dude, that's messed up! That means I'll never get to leave this room!" he exclaimed in a tone of outrage.

Looking at the digital clock on her nightstand, Chelsea noticed the time. "Aw, shit! I gotta go! Don't worry. I've left you some food and entertainment you might enjoy," she said, gesturing to a box of Reeses puffs, a small carton of milk, and a large hardcover book. She then ran upstairs to catch the bus.

Stepping on the bus, she headed to her usual seat to wait for Will to be picked up. A while later, the bus stopped and Will got on. He sat down in his usual seat and turned his head to speak to her. As soon as he saw her, his eyes went wide.

"Whoa! You're pale! I mean, you've always been pretty pale, but today you're really pale. What's up?" asked Will.

'Crap! I haven't made up an excuse for the skin yet!' Chelsea internally berated herself for not thinking up a reasonable excuse for her skin. "Um... I'm... going... goth?" she lamely said.

"What the hell for?" Will asked incredulously.

"Uhh... to make a... statement?" she added.

Will skeptically eyed her regular blue jeans and gray t-shirt. "Riiiight. Well, whatever floats your boat," he finally said.

After seeing Will's reaction to her "new look", she really wasn't looking forward to trying to convince everyone else. Luckily though, Chelsea and Will were the type of people who never really associated with most of their fellow students. So, most people didn't bother to ask her about it. As the morning wore on though, Chelsea noticed that while the girls, as usual, weren't paying any attention to her, the boys, however, kept staring at her with unusual looks on their faces. To say that she was starting to feel uneasy would be an understatement.

After class, she approached Will. "Hey, did you notice anything weird about the guys in class?" she asked.

"Yeah, they were giving you the 'I'd so bang that' look," he simply said.

"What!?" she exclaimed in horror.

"Well, it was either that or the 'I'd definitely eat that' look. Usually, that look is used for food, though," he explained further.

"Why the hell are they looking at me like that now? They wouldn't even acknowledge my existence last week!"

"Beats the hell out of me." Will said, with a shrug.

Meanwhile, Alden was starting to get a little stir crazy. He was a little worried about Chelsea. Although it was highly unlikely that Astrophel would come back for her during the day time, it was still a possibility. Trying to take his mind off of his worries, he picked up the book that Chelsea had left for him. Examining the front cover for a moment, he said, "Twilight, huh? She said that I'd enjoy this book. I wonder why?". Turning to the first page, he started reading.

Back at school, Chelsea was heading to lunch. Just as she was about to walk through the cafeteria doors, Mike, a quiet boy in her Spanish class, blocked her way.

"Would you like to eat with me, Chelsea?" Mike asked sheepishly.

"Um, I'm kind of eating with Will," she replied.

"Oh, some other time, then?" he offered.

"Suuuure," was all she said, as she passed him.

She quickly got her tray of food and headed toward her usual table. By the time she arrived, Will was already scarfing down his food. Several minutes after she started eating, a jock named Jason walked over to their table.

"Hey, Chelsea! Wouldn't you rather eat with me at my table?" he asked her smoothly.

"No thanks. I'm quite comfortable right here," she said.

"Whatever, next time then," he said, before returning to his table.

"Holy shit! I knew that some popular guys were into goth chicks, but who'd have ever thought that Jason secretly wanted you," Will said.

"Okay, I'm going to ignore the fact that you got that info from watching Juno. Anyway, this is the second time today that something like that has happened. What am I going to do?" Chelsea wondered.

"Wait, second?" a confused Will asked.

"Yeah, Mike wanted me to eat lunch with him earlier," she explained.

"Whoa, Mike can talk!? I've never heard him say a single word!" he exclaimed in amazement.

"Whatever. So, what are you doing after school?" she asked.

"I've got to work in hell again," he said.

Their conversation was interrupted by the bell. They quickly rushed to their fifth period classes. The rest of the day flew by rather smoothly. Luckily, no other guys tried to flirt with her. Before she knew it, Chelsea was on the bus going home.

As she got off the bus, she noticed that her parents' van wasn't in the driveway. 'Awesome, that means Alden got a chance to get out of my room,' the pleasing thought ran through her head. Opening the door, she called out, "Alden, I'm home!". Surprisingly, she didn't get an answer. She rushed down to her room to see if he was down there. Upon entering, she found him sitting on her bed and reading Twilight.

"Oh, you're home," he simply said, putting the book down.

"Have you been down here all day?" Chelsea asked.

"Yeah, I've been reading this book you left for me. You were right. It is pretty good," said Alden.

"You know my parents are gone, right?" she asked.

"Really? Awesome!" he exclaimed.

"Anyway, I'm going to go upstairs to get a snack. I'll be right back," she said, before going up to the kitchen. As she was looking through the fridge, she heard the front door open and slam shut.

Meanwhile, Will had come over to Chelsea's house, because he had some exciting news to tell her. Seeing as how he knew Chelsea so well, he never bothered to knock before entering her house. He immediately ran downstairs to her room.

Still sitting on Chelsea's bed, Alden heard the front door slam shut and foreign feet running down the stairs towards the bedroom. Alden quickly hid in Chelsea's closet in order to hide from the human intruder.

As soon as Will came into the bedroom, he yelled out, "Guess what, Chelsea! I just got fired! Apparently, I put onions on a customer's pizza, who happened to be allergic to them. Isn't that awesome!" Looking around, he noticed that Chelsea wasn't in the room. 'Hm, since she's not here, I think I'll take back that sweater she borrowed from me two weeks ago.' Opening the closet door, he was greeted by the sight of a man hiding in Chelsea's closet. Will quickly slammed the door shut. Ignoring the painful sounds coming from within the closet, he exclaimed, "Holy shit! Why is there a guy in Chelsea's closet!?"

Alden was not happy about what just happened. His brilliant hiding spot had just been discovered. Immediately after this the door had been slammed right into his nose. To top it all off, several things fell on him from the top shelf, including books, shoes, a tennis racket, and a bowling ball. "Fuck, ow! Who the hell puts a bowling ball on the top shelf!" he screamed in pain.

Upon hearing the commotion, Chelsea ran downstairs to find out what happened. The phrase 'oh shit' kept going through her mind at a hundred miles per hour. She met Will outside of her room.

"Chelsea! What the hell is going on here!?" Will demanded.

'Uh oh, I guess it's time to fess up,' Chelsea realized.

Mwuhahahaha! Cliff hanger! Once again, I'm very very sorry that I haven't updated in a while. To compensate for it, I made this chapter a little longer. Anyway, I love it when y'all review. So, spread the love and review!